Odebrecht Engineering & Construction (OEC) has joined a group of companies that take a public position on eradicating modern slave labor. In September, the company became a member of the Institute for the National Pact to Eradicate Slave Labor (InPACTO), a Brazilian non-governmental organization that promotes the prevention and eradication of inhuman working conditions on a national and international scale.

Learn more about the commitments taken on by OEC:

1. To acknowledge the legitimacy of the Register of Employers that have submitted workers to inhuman working conditions – the “Dirty List” (Interministerial Decree MTE/SDH nº2 of March 31, 2015);

2. To define commercial restrictions for individuals and companies included on the “Dirty List” that are part of the company or organization’s value chain;

3. To promote the regulation of labor relations in the value chain;

4. To support actions focusing on the professional qualification of rescued and vulnerable workers;

5. To support actions to reinsert rescued and vulnerable workers into the labor market;

6. To promote information and communication actions that aim to prevent slave labor;

7. To support and take part in InPacto activities to promote public policies that prevent and eradicate slave labor;

8. To systematize, disseminate and share best practices, in order prevent and eradicate slave labor;

9. To take part in the periodic monitoring process performed by InPacto;

10. To develop a plan to implement the commitments taken on with InPacto.

Besides signaling its effective commitment to human and labor rights, OEC and the 57 associate companies share a space for dialogue and learning and agree to have their performance monitored by the institution on an annual basis.

There are more than 45 million people enslaved around the world. Modern slave labor or that equivalent to slavery is associated to inhuman working conditions that expose workers to risks to their health and lives, exhaustive working days, restricted freedom and debt bondage.